Using Social Networking in Risk Management and Human Resources

Social Media has created many risks, but also many opportunities for businesses, if they are mindful in how they utilize it properly. One area in which social networking can provide a great tool for risk mitigation is in your human resources department. When a company decides to begin their hiring process, they are exposing themselves to a set of risks which are not easily controlled. The more people who you expose yourself to, the more people there are that can possibly take legal action against you. Asking the wrong question in the interview process could end up creating a legal problem for your company. However, making a bad choice in the hiring process, especially for a small company, can have an even greater effect on the business. No one wants to hire a partier or an antagonist. At ALC Risk Solutions we provide our clients with insurance solutions for human resources, like Employment Practices Liability Insurance which will cover your company for law suits dealing with wrongful termination, harassment and discrimination. But, we also believe that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Risk management is that prevention, and social networks are one of our tools.

The problem is that as an employer you are limited in regards to the personal questions you can ask a potential hire. That is where tools like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others become your best friend. I'll give a recent anecdote to explain. We recently finished our search to find a nanny after many weeks for our 9 month old daughter. We had been using to really great websites that are available for finding care givers, SitterCity.com; and Care.Com. They are both great website, and I highly recommend them. Care givers post their profiles, resumes, references, pictures, ect, on this site, and you can contact them and set up interviews. They even make it very simple to get comprehensive background checks through the websites. We met with a bunch of great candidates. In the end we were torn between two ladies. One was slightly older, and didn't speak English (my wife is fluent in Spanish, I'm not) and the other was a recent college graduate. The younger one really impressed us. She was going to do yoga with our 3 year old, and she was really into healthy eating and exercise, and just seemed like a lot of fun.

Later that night, I searched her email address in Facebook, and I saw many red flags that made our decision for us. It was not that she occasionally went out to bars, or anything like that, everyone is human. No, she was a proud supporter and apostle of Professor Timothy Leary and Hunter s. Thompson. These are the two individuals that are best known for their encouragement of the use of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and Acid. Not exactly Mary Poppins.

Needless to say we hired the other lady.

Social Media needs to be used in your business's hiring process as well. Facebook allows users to control their privacy very well. However, many of the people that should keep their lives private chose not to. Twitter will give you less information, but although there are privacy settings, few people chose to utilize them. MySpace is less known to me, but from my understanding the user decides what the public can see, and what only their contacts can see.

A few do's and don'ts with using Social Networking in the Human Resources department:

1. Don't friend a potential hire because their page is private – I don't know the legal ramifications, and they probably haven't been played out yet, but doing so, and using that information against them, could create a law suit
   
2. Don't tell the candidate that they were not hired because of their facebook page, and do not tell employees they were fired because of their facebook page. Recently a teacher was fired because of pictures she posted on her facebook page. Read the Washington Post Article Here. Now they are being sued. There were no grounds to dismiss her for that, so dismiss your employees for a different reason if their private facebook page bothers you that much. Likewise, just the tell the person, "The position has been filled". End of Story.
   
3. Do a Google search on the candidates. You would be surprised how much information everyone has out there. Do a Google Web search, do a Google Image Search. If they are in a regulated industry, like insurance, go to your State website, like the Florida Department of Financial Services, and make sure they are licensed like they say they are. Even do a search of your State's division of corporations. Maybe they were an officer of a previous company, maybe they still are.
   
4. Do a background search on your finalist. You can use websites, but you should really hire a qualified private investigator. My go to guy is Rich Bragassa, from Rich Bragassa and Associates. He's basically an information broker and a risk avoidance specialist.
   
5. Lastly, Don't forget that everyone is human, and you want to hire a human. It's ok if there are some questionable things, you just don't want full blow Category 5 Red Hurricane Flags. If someone is so boring that they've done nothing wrong, you, a half delinquent in your younger years, probably won't get along with the pious individual.
   

For more risk management tools and insurance, including Employment Practices Liability Insurance, contact Andrew Cohn of ALC Risk Solutions at (786) 664-RISK (7475)